This article is intended to provide the reader with an introduction to two technologies, EMC FAST and NetApp FlashCache. Both of these technologies are intended to improve the performance of storage arrays, while also helping to bend the cost curve of storage downward. With the amount of data that … [Read more...]
EMC Mixes Avamar Into Iomega ix12-300r
May 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Wandering the EMC World show floor was very revealing. Along with EMC’s new VPLEX, Chris Mellor and I spotted the unannounced SDRAM-based ZeusRAM SSD from STEC. While getting some hands-on time with Iomega’s new 12-drive storage array, I spotted an exciting but unannounced feature: The ix12-300r … [Read more...]
Google for the Infrastructure
December 16, 2009 by 2 Comments
I've been thinking about FAST and especially FAST v2 but not entirely from a storage point of view. FAST v2 and indeed any automated storage tiering product has some interesting uses beyond storage and could be a basis for a whole new way of managing IT as a service. In fact, it finally enables … [Read more...]
FAST: Features, Drawbacks, Applications and some Questions
December 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
FAST (FULLY AUTOMATED STORAGE TIERING) FAST made a debut in the storage market yesterday (12/08/09). Finally after the market buzz we got a preview of the product in terms of its features, functionality, characteristics, possible shortcomings and use cases. This blog post focuses on the … [Read more...]
After all, FAST makes a debut
December 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
So EMC has proved critics like me wrong and have introduced EMC FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) as an offering in Dec 2009. There were many skeptics like me that saw this product release being stalled because of various reasons, here. FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering) … [Read more...]
EMC’s FAST, take 1. Action!
December 10, 2009 by 1 Comment
As you might have read in my earlier blog post, EMC has announced the release of the first version of their product called “Fully Automated Storage Tiering” or in short “FAST”. Now, to describe the purpose of this technology in a very simple form, we are talking about the … [Read more...]
Enterprise Computing: Is There Any Point Buying From EMC?
December 9, 2009 by 4 Comments
Yesterday, EMC announced Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST), their much hyped and much anticipated storage feature enabling the automated moving of data between tiers of storage on a policy basis. However the most notable missing feature in the EMC announcement was the lack of support for … [Read more...]
Policy! Policy!! Policy!!!
October 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
It has been an exciting month, some new details are emerging related to automated storage tiering, workload distributions, workflow automation, SLA's, QoS and how Policy based storage management can help solve these challenges. "Policy" as we all know in the "business world", "advanced algorithms" … [Read more...]